So after exiting the KLAC Fame and Fortune contest, I had a load of opportunities come my way - and they still are coming.

In order to keep it all straight I have launched a new BLOG over at blogger.com - I will mirror stuff here when I can figure out how.

Until then, here is a taste of THE THUNDERING BLURB

If you like football, you'll like this stuff. Tons of posts, audio and maybe some video and it's 365 football!

Enjoy!

http://thethunderingblurb.blogspot.com/

Hey folks,

So I got a little buried this week and the blog died. Poor poor blog.

But the Lakers put all the doubters to bed and took Utah IN Utah - no mean feat this year. But as I have said multiple times here and there, Kobe and the Lakers just had too much going on and the Jazz just weren't going to keep up the whole way. Hope Kobe's back enjoys the extra couple of days off.

Fame and Fortune 2 - This Time it's Impersonal - kicked off this week - and it was one of those things where God bless the tech guys cause they musta had their hands full.

I'm pretty happy with my entry (in K#9 if you would like to throw a vote my way) and I look good to head to round 2. There are some good efforts out there, no doubt about it.

All I can say is, I bring energy, knowledge and a great love of sports to the table. I've been writing about football for years now, as well as being an avid basketball, baseball and hocket fan.

Heck, I even catch a soccer game off and on.

I'm blessed in that I've had the opportunity to interview a ton of football players in the last 5 months - from former college guys like Bruce Davis and Sedrick Ellis, to guys with another year or so to go, Like Drew Olson and Rudy Carpenter (ASU QB). So I can hold my own.

I'm really pumped about this contest and I really think I'd be a great addition to Big Joe's show - plus I live near two great BBQ places so I can always bribe the boys with some good BBQ for the BBQ.

Nice!

I wish EVERYONE luck - and applaud EVERYONE who entered. It takes a lot of pride and confidence to hang something of your own out there. I know a bunch of people who thought they would enter, then didn;t for many reasons. Even if you just called on a lark and ripped a random diatribe on the phone line for 2 minutes, my hat's off to you.

You've already made it farther than most people ever do. So regardless of the outcome of your venture in this contest, keep moving forward and hanging it out there.

Taking these chances are the only way you ever get anywhere in life - live bravely and proudly. I know where I'm heading - how I get there is the journey. Could be this. Could be something else.

Best of luck!

So first, disappointing loss for the Lake Show today. The rebounds were better, but the free throw shooting was a killer. You can't miss that many and still expect to win - though the fact that the Lakers hung in and almost DID win just tells you how talented this team is.

Utah ain't a joke though and are nails at home - that's why I said Lakers in 6 - cause the Jazz came to play.

I think they'll be fine - they need to hit those free throws and they need to avoid the foul troubles they got into early.

I think Michael Thomas mentioned on the radio broadcast that the teams switched spots - in LA, the Jazz were fouling out. In Utah, it flipped - makes you wonder how much officiating swings towards the home team in basketball.

I'm not saying officiating cost the Lakers the game - it didn't. But it was interesting to watch the flip.

In other news -
Did OJ Mayo take money while at USC? I can't really tell you as I don't know. I will say this sounds just like Reggie Bush. The suspician does and it isn't good for USC. Even if Mayo didn't take money or didn't know where money was coming from (look the money fairy dropped cash again!) it ain't a good trend. It doesn't take more than a couple of incidents like this to draw the wrong kind of rep to a program - or the wrong kinda NCAA investigation.

As an SC alum, I hope this stuff isn't true. I want to believe it isn't.

Someone needs to have a very long talk with the guys in the sports program at USC - clearly the wrong type of people are hanging around some of these guys, even if all this is a wacky misunderstanding. I don't want to see good kids have their reps dragged through the
mud by a few guys who don't get it.

(Of course, if these kids got a cut from the money universities got.... ah, that's another column.....)